I'm curious to see if Cynthia Nixon garners any traction for A Quiet Passion. She strikes me as the type of actress that could parley the reviews she got into a critics citation or two.
I was in a semi-drowsy state when I saw Personal Shopper, which is not ideal...
Halfway Through 2017
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The Original BJ
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Halfway Through 2017
Believe it or not, the year is half over. (But it’s felt more like five years, no?) Mark Harris Tweeted last week that it’s way too early to talk about the Oscars, and his point is a valid one. So consider this post mostly a discussion about some movies from the first half of the year, with scattered Oscar thoughts thrown in along the way… because it’s never really too early to talk Oscar around here, right?
I think any discussion about award candidates so far has to start with Get Out. Although its genre is something of a hurdle, it meets every other rubric of an Oscar success: reviews were stellar, its box office was huge (and not just for this kind of movie – its gross is up there with the year’s big tentpoles), and it has a sociopolitical relevance that I imagine will allow many to consider it more seriously than any horror movie since The Sixth Sense. I’d bet pretty strongly on an Original Screenplay nod, at least. Thrillers tend to do well in Film Editing, so that’s another possibility. And given its bird-in-the-hand status, I think Best Picture could very well be in the cards.
Like Sabin, I found The Big Sick quite funny, sharing a sensibility with a lot of films about stand-up (I recalled Don’t Think Twice more than once), but finding a lot of fresh humor in this film’s specific premise as well. It’s also rather heartfelt, exploring a type of relationship we see a lot of (boyfriend meeting girlfriend’s parents) from a unique angle. I think some of the BIG Oscar buzz is a little overblown -- it’s got some of the downsides of a Sundance comedy too, including the fact that it’s pretty indifferently shot, and a bit overlong –- but it’s another one I could see making an impression in the Original Screenplay discussion, and maybe for its supporting actors. This is Holly Hunter’s best part in some time, and Ray Romano, while not exactly reinventing himself, seems likely to benefit from the kind of credit comics often get when they go dramatic.
I’m pretty in sync with Mister Tee on The Lost City of Z (and James Gray’s work as a whole). I found the movie perfectly engaging, intelligent, and well-crafted. But I think it’s old-fashioned almost to a fault – I believe it was the Vanity Fair podcast that said there’s nothing “trendy” about Gray’s work, and while that was intended as praise, for me that descriptor gets at the weakness of Lost City of Z, which just didn’t connect to anything in my life in a way that really excited me. The box office (under $10 million despite decent reviews) suggests an awards run will be an uphill climb, but I could definitely still see it breaking into the Cinematography category, in much the same way The New World and Silence did.
I see some folks are touting Wonder Woman for Best Picture and Actress, and I don’t really know what to say about that. There’s no precedent for nominations like that, not even Mad Max, which (like it or not) was genuinely one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Wonder Woman has a profile a lot closer to Deadpool, another “this could be a Best Picture nominee” superhero flick that ended up with bupkiss. As one of the summer’s well-liked hits, Wonder Woman still has a shot at some below-the-line nods, possibly in the Sound categories, and maybe Makeup (for that scarred lady’s face). I’d normally include Visual Effects for a successful movie like this, but I thought some of the effects looked pretty chintzy.
Despite winning an Oscar pretty early in her career, Sofia Coppola has never been much of an Academy-type filmmaker, and I don’t think that will really change with The Beguiled. Her take on this material is well-crafted, and her moody, ethereal style makes the film feel quite different from the blunt thriller vibe of the earlier movie. But beat for beat, the plot is basically identical, and I wondered what exactly Coppola had intended to accomplish by remaking this. I could see some critics rallying for the Cinematography here, but despite the Cannes prize, the whole affair feels a bit low-key to make all that much of an impression by year’s end.
Speaking of rehashed plots…Beauty and the Beast, this year’s live action remake of an animated Disney classic. It’s worth noting just how staggering the box office was for this one -- it’s in the top ten highest grossing movies of all-time -- without really feeling like it made that kind of pop culture impact. Like Cinderella and The Jungle Book, I could see it getting a stray nod somewhere, most likely in Production or Costume Design, for the visual splendor of the Beast’s castle and its inhabitants. And I guess you never count out Alan Menken in the Song category, but I honestly found his new numbers pretty unmemorable.
I found a lot about It Comes at Night to be very effective, particularly on a technical level -- the camerawork, editing, sound, and score contributed to a very tense sense of dread that was impressive for such a tiny film. I think the movie gets at some interesting ideas -- I liked the way the disease (whatever “it” is) was mostly a McGuffin, used simply as a catalyst to explore what it actually might be like for this group of people to have to interact with each other during a catastrophe such as this. But by the end of the movie, I did feel like less was starting to be less -- I didn’t boo at the screen at the ending the way most of my audience did, but I felt like the story needed more of a revelation somewhere to feel completely satisfying.
Baby Driver is clearly a frivolity, but it has an entertaining kick to it, and as far as summer movies go, I found its analog pleasures far preferable to the CGI bloat of a lot of blockbusters. There are some pretty smashingly staged car sequences here, along with some of the stylistic snap of early Tarantino, and a great soundtrack. And I think the decision to make the protagonist such an obviously decent human being gives the movie a nice sensitivity to off-set its violence. Nothing major, but more fun than much of what passes for escapist entertainment.
I found Personal Shopper to be not dissimilar from my experience with Clouds of Sils Maria; as in Assayas’s last film, I thought the storyline had compelling ideas in it, and felt visually like an artist’s hand was guiding it. But ultimately, too much of the story just didn’t cohere for me in a manner that was narratively rewarding. Kristen Stewart continues to reinforce her status as the favorite young actress of auteurs, but I think her best roles are still on the horizon.
Although I think Bong Joon-ho is a director with clear personality, I wasn’t that wild about Okja. It has an interesting premise, and the early portion of the movie suggested it would be another compelling examination of the moneyed classes’ exploitation of the proles, in the same hyper-stylized tone as Snowpiercer. But I found the back half of the plot pretty uninteresting -- it basically amounts to a big chase, without that much exploration of its underlying themes. And certain elements flat-out didn’t work for me, like a genuinely bad Jake Gyllenhaal performance, and Tilda Swinton playing two characters when there’s no reason they couldn’t have just been one. I’m not sure this will be quite the test case for whether Netflix films can compete with theatrically released ones on the award season trail, given that I think this will simply be too quirky to make much of an impact beyond cinephile circles regardless.
For me, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was nearly as confusing and humorless as the original. But it may well repeat its predecessor’s pair of nominations; the Visual Effects created a new world that hadn’t been seen in the earlier film, and there were certainly a lot of new imaginative creatures to qualify for Makeup again.
One wonders if the new rules in the animation category will lead to more nominations for studio fare like Cars 3, but even with those changes, I have my doubts about this one's chances. This category really hasn’t had much time for the Pixar sequels (at least when not superlative, like Toy Story 3), and I don’t think this ho-hum entry in Pixar’s dullest franchise will be an exception.
Although the new O.J. rule will prevent it from Oscar qualification, I’ll give a shout out to Five Came Back as being a genuinely worthy documentary series. Of course, I’m a soft touch for the Hollywood history subject matter, but the stories of these five directors are shaped into narrative in a manner that’s very effective, and I found much of the war-era footage genuinely powerful. One of the more rewarding viewing experiences on film or tv (whatever it qualifies as) I’ve had this year.
I think any discussion about award candidates so far has to start with Get Out. Although its genre is something of a hurdle, it meets every other rubric of an Oscar success: reviews were stellar, its box office was huge (and not just for this kind of movie – its gross is up there with the year’s big tentpoles), and it has a sociopolitical relevance that I imagine will allow many to consider it more seriously than any horror movie since The Sixth Sense. I’d bet pretty strongly on an Original Screenplay nod, at least. Thrillers tend to do well in Film Editing, so that’s another possibility. And given its bird-in-the-hand status, I think Best Picture could very well be in the cards.
Like Sabin, I found The Big Sick quite funny, sharing a sensibility with a lot of films about stand-up (I recalled Don’t Think Twice more than once), but finding a lot of fresh humor in this film’s specific premise as well. It’s also rather heartfelt, exploring a type of relationship we see a lot of (boyfriend meeting girlfriend’s parents) from a unique angle. I think some of the BIG Oscar buzz is a little overblown -- it’s got some of the downsides of a Sundance comedy too, including the fact that it’s pretty indifferently shot, and a bit overlong –- but it’s another one I could see making an impression in the Original Screenplay discussion, and maybe for its supporting actors. This is Holly Hunter’s best part in some time, and Ray Romano, while not exactly reinventing himself, seems likely to benefit from the kind of credit comics often get when they go dramatic.
I’m pretty in sync with Mister Tee on The Lost City of Z (and James Gray’s work as a whole). I found the movie perfectly engaging, intelligent, and well-crafted. But I think it’s old-fashioned almost to a fault – I believe it was the Vanity Fair podcast that said there’s nothing “trendy” about Gray’s work, and while that was intended as praise, for me that descriptor gets at the weakness of Lost City of Z, which just didn’t connect to anything in my life in a way that really excited me. The box office (under $10 million despite decent reviews) suggests an awards run will be an uphill climb, but I could definitely still see it breaking into the Cinematography category, in much the same way The New World and Silence did.
I see some folks are touting Wonder Woman for Best Picture and Actress, and I don’t really know what to say about that. There’s no precedent for nominations like that, not even Mad Max, which (like it or not) was genuinely one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Wonder Woman has a profile a lot closer to Deadpool, another “this could be a Best Picture nominee” superhero flick that ended up with bupkiss. As one of the summer’s well-liked hits, Wonder Woman still has a shot at some below-the-line nods, possibly in the Sound categories, and maybe Makeup (for that scarred lady’s face). I’d normally include Visual Effects for a successful movie like this, but I thought some of the effects looked pretty chintzy.
Despite winning an Oscar pretty early in her career, Sofia Coppola has never been much of an Academy-type filmmaker, and I don’t think that will really change with The Beguiled. Her take on this material is well-crafted, and her moody, ethereal style makes the film feel quite different from the blunt thriller vibe of the earlier movie. But beat for beat, the plot is basically identical, and I wondered what exactly Coppola had intended to accomplish by remaking this. I could see some critics rallying for the Cinematography here, but despite the Cannes prize, the whole affair feels a bit low-key to make all that much of an impression by year’s end.
Speaking of rehashed plots…Beauty and the Beast, this year’s live action remake of an animated Disney classic. It’s worth noting just how staggering the box office was for this one -- it’s in the top ten highest grossing movies of all-time -- without really feeling like it made that kind of pop culture impact. Like Cinderella and The Jungle Book, I could see it getting a stray nod somewhere, most likely in Production or Costume Design, for the visual splendor of the Beast’s castle and its inhabitants. And I guess you never count out Alan Menken in the Song category, but I honestly found his new numbers pretty unmemorable.
I found a lot about It Comes at Night to be very effective, particularly on a technical level -- the camerawork, editing, sound, and score contributed to a very tense sense of dread that was impressive for such a tiny film. I think the movie gets at some interesting ideas -- I liked the way the disease (whatever “it” is) was mostly a McGuffin, used simply as a catalyst to explore what it actually might be like for this group of people to have to interact with each other during a catastrophe such as this. But by the end of the movie, I did feel like less was starting to be less -- I didn’t boo at the screen at the ending the way most of my audience did, but I felt like the story needed more of a revelation somewhere to feel completely satisfying.
Baby Driver is clearly a frivolity, but it has an entertaining kick to it, and as far as summer movies go, I found its analog pleasures far preferable to the CGI bloat of a lot of blockbusters. There are some pretty smashingly staged car sequences here, along with some of the stylistic snap of early Tarantino, and a great soundtrack. And I think the decision to make the protagonist such an obviously decent human being gives the movie a nice sensitivity to off-set its violence. Nothing major, but more fun than much of what passes for escapist entertainment.
I found Personal Shopper to be not dissimilar from my experience with Clouds of Sils Maria; as in Assayas’s last film, I thought the storyline had compelling ideas in it, and felt visually like an artist’s hand was guiding it. But ultimately, too much of the story just didn’t cohere for me in a manner that was narratively rewarding. Kristen Stewart continues to reinforce her status as the favorite young actress of auteurs, but I think her best roles are still on the horizon.
Although I think Bong Joon-ho is a director with clear personality, I wasn’t that wild about Okja. It has an interesting premise, and the early portion of the movie suggested it would be another compelling examination of the moneyed classes’ exploitation of the proles, in the same hyper-stylized tone as Snowpiercer. But I found the back half of the plot pretty uninteresting -- it basically amounts to a big chase, without that much exploration of its underlying themes. And certain elements flat-out didn’t work for me, like a genuinely bad Jake Gyllenhaal performance, and Tilda Swinton playing two characters when there’s no reason they couldn’t have just been one. I’m not sure this will be quite the test case for whether Netflix films can compete with theatrically released ones on the award season trail, given that I think this will simply be too quirky to make much of an impact beyond cinephile circles regardless.
For me, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was nearly as confusing and humorless as the original. But it may well repeat its predecessor’s pair of nominations; the Visual Effects created a new world that hadn’t been seen in the earlier film, and there were certainly a lot of new imaginative creatures to qualify for Makeup again.
One wonders if the new rules in the animation category will lead to more nominations for studio fare like Cars 3, but even with those changes, I have my doubts about this one's chances. This category really hasn’t had much time for the Pixar sequels (at least when not superlative, like Toy Story 3), and I don’t think this ho-hum entry in Pixar’s dullest franchise will be an exception.
Although the new O.J. rule will prevent it from Oscar qualification, I’ll give a shout out to Five Came Back as being a genuinely worthy documentary series. Of course, I’m a soft touch for the Hollywood history subject matter, but the stories of these five directors are shaped into narrative in a manner that’s very effective, and I found much of the war-era footage genuinely powerful. One of the more rewarding viewing experiences on film or tv (whatever it qualifies as) I’ve had this year.